Toad in the Hole - A Sussex Pub Game

Toad in the Hole is a distinctly Sussex pub game, centred around the town of Lewes, where the World Championship is held each year. There are minor variations but essentially the game involves four weighty brass discs, "toads" being are thrown at a small table around seven or eight feet away. The table-top surface is made from lead and in the middle of it is a hole at which the discs are aimed. Discs which descend through the hole typically end up in a large drawer which forms the interior of the table and which is pulled out to collect the discs after each turn. More modern tables sometimes feature a chute instead that slides a toad back to the front for convenient collection. Two points are scored for a toad in the hole, one point for a toad resting on the top of the table.

This is an old pub Toad in the Hole table owned by the author. The central hole has begun to be distorted by the battering of the coins.

You might think this is a pretty simple concept, an even a somewhat boring pastime, perhaps, at first. But you would be so wrong - like most pub games, the simplicity disguises hidden depths. The subtlety here, is that lead is a soft material and the best players can use that to their advantage. For the first few turns, most beginners struggle to make a coin land flat on the surface and, if it lands at the slightest angle, it will flip off the table leaving you to rummage around the skirting boards and under tables to retrieve it. Once that basic skill is under control, the temptation is to just try to send the disks directly into the hole but this turns out to be poor tactics - if the disk catches the edge of the hole then there is a high chance it will flip and go sailing onto the floor.

So there tend to be two schools of thought - many players like to land the coin flat near the front of the table aiming to slide it a few inches nicely into the hole. The trouble with that is that once a disk misses, it then lies in the way of any subsequent disks and reduces the chance of a big score. So the better players attempt to master the rather more difficult technique of landing the brass disk directly behind the hole at a slightly forward angle so that it digs into the lead and falls backwards into the hole. Really good players are proficient at both techniques starting with the 'slide', and then moving onto the 'dig' as necessary. And then occasionally if a toad lies right over the hole so that the slightest nudge will send it in, a final disk might be sent right at the hole. I've seen the last disk hit two over the hole and all three ending up inside - imagine the satisfaction...

Toad in the Hole Competitions

Toad table at the Brewers Arms in Lewes, taken October 2023. This wonderful old table shows what years of brass disks thudding into lead can do. A great example of a 'volcano' table, and for some reason, an awkward dip has also developed near the front of the table. This is a difficult table to play on - if a disk misses the hole it seems to rarely land flat on the surface...

Toad in the Hole maintains a consistently ardent following and is thriving in the areas where it is played, particularly in and around the town of Lewes. Since the Covid pandemic, it has spread rapidly into the town of Brighton, too, and can also now be found in pubs as far away as Preston and Lincolnshire. The Lewes Lions Club in Lewes, East Sussex organised the "International 'Toad-In-The-Hole' Competition" annually in the Town Hall in Lewes until 2020 and Lion Ken Shipway, then President of of the club, wrote to inform the author that the game had a resurgence thanks to the competition. For instance, the 2006 competition entertained 192 competitors in 48 teams of 4 people. Up to the final it is the best of 3 games in a match and in the final it is the best of 5 games. Teams from all over the world are invited to enter! The author first visited the World Championship in 2009, where they had more entrants than they can cope with and so some of the less "serious" teams don't make it to the starting line. According to the event co-ordinator, Alan Dunn, in 2011 it was still going from strength to strength, oversubscribed with teams, and well supported by local businesses. They looked at enlarging the event but never had enough members to adequately staff it further. In May 2020, after many years raising money for all manner of good causes, the Lewes Lions Club closed and, from 2022, the Commercial Square Bonfire Society took over running the event.

In 2022, a group led by inimitable local enthusiast, Jonny Wills organised the inaugural World Toad Singles Championship. Hotly contested in 2022 by 16 players, in 2023 by 32 and in 2024 by 64 competitors (with a waiting list), the skill levels are extremely high . The competition has a markedly different flavour to the "team Worlds" held in Lewes town centre. Although promoted by Jonny with a massive dose of humour, the competition itself is taken very seriously and, whereas the team World championship is played on identical "tournament" tables, the eight tables at the singles are different and individual, each carefully selected, played from a different distance and with its own special traits. This is to ensure a better test of the game as played for real in Toad in the Hole leagues, where each pub has a different table with individual characteristics, requiring a slightly different skillset and strategy. The tables featured at the 2024 Singles World Championship are shown below (with thanks to Jonny Wills and the individuals credited under each picture).

There has been a mystery surrounding Toad in the Hole - that of its origin but, following new research by the author in 20204, this page outlines a good theory of of how its genesis occurred.

Toad in the Hole Origins - The European Link

A Basque 'La Rana' table in the street outside a bar in Bilbao, capital of the Basque region - taken in 2011.

In continental Europe, a similar and older game with multiple holes is called Frog or Toad because the primary target is the figure of the amphibious creature with it's mouth open. In England, it is the disks themselves that are called Toads and the hole is just a hole. A further twist to the plot is that "Toad in the Hole" is also the name of a traditional Yorkshire dish consisting of sausagemeat in batter. So what exactly is the relationship between the UK game and the European game?

In the Northern part of Spain and particularly the Basque country, 'La Rana' tables are distinctly different and simpler, featuring a single frog figure with its mouth open as the target. A single hole is less gimmicky but makes for a more skilful game so, in that, La Rana and Toad in the Hole are close cousins, and one theory could be that the English game is a simplified form of 'La Rana'.

Toad in the Hole Origins - Pitch Penny

A far more likely hypothesis is that Toad in the Hole is simply a modern version of those old games found particularly in the East of England in Pubs, Churches & public areas that involve tossing a coin at a hole in a piece of pub furniture.

There are a whole variety of games which simply involve the throwing of coins or discs at walls or at holes in a bench, chair, wall or box. This game has been going on for time immemorial; its origins are lost in time.

The illustration is from a children's book published in 1744. The chap on the left is throwing a coin at the hole which is presumably located at the centre of the little mound in front of him. The title of the picture is "Chuck Farthing" so it would appear, unsurprisingly, that the name of the game changed over the years as the currency changed. The same thing happened for Shove Ha'penny which was previously called "Push Penny" and prior to that "Shove Groat". The accompanying poem reads "As you value your Pence, At the Hole take your aim; Chuck all safely in, And you'll win the game". One might reasonably deduce from this that several coins were thrown in a turn.

The most well know example in England comes from Norfolk and Essex and is called Pitch Penny, Penny Seat, Penny Slot, Tossing the Penny or Penny in the Hole. Essentially pennies are thrown across the room and into a hole carved in the seat of a high-backed settle or wooden bench.

The lead playing surface of a Toad in the Hole is clearly similar to Essex and Norfolk 'Pitch Penny' holes that are (or were) usually surrounded by lead, so the idea that they are not related seems far-fetched. Toad in the Hole, then, seems most likely to be no more than a portable version of Pitch Penny.

The brass toads are around 2 inches diameter and there is a commonly held belief that they are based on old Cartwheel pennies. In fact they are around the same size as Cartwheel Twopences, the largest coin ever struck in the UK, and if this theory is true, it would date the game back to 1797 when both Cartwheels were produced. That seems to be a lot older than the inception of purpose-made Toad tables but, if the modern game is based on the older game of Pitch Penny, then it's possible that a Cartwheel Twopence was once the favoured coin for that pub sport, and this was maintained as the traditional disk size right through to the 1920s when it seems likely that the modern Toad in the Hole table was born in Sussex.

Toad in the Hole Origins - Etymology

This is the table at the Lewes Arms in Lewes. It's an old pub with small rooms and the Toad table is the smallest and lowest I've seen.

As for the name, it will next be shown that there is good evidence that in the early 20th century, the continental, probably French, version of the game, La Grenouille, was sometimes seen in the South of England and that it was usually known as 'Toad in the Hole' - presumably the well-known phrase was applied to the game because, well, there was a toad and there was a hole...

One must be careful when searching for old references to this game. Not only is there the stodgy Yorkshire dish (earliest reference 1787), there was a song entitled 'Toad in the Hole' which seems to have been popular just after 1900 and the Oxford English Dictionary lists references to a children's hide and seek game also known as 'Toad in the Hole' from 1930 and 1969. Having avoiding those pitfalls we find:

• A 1903 Country Life article describes a 'Toad in the Hole' game featuring coins being thrown at a metal Toad with a wide-open mouth screwed into a table top.
• Arthur Taylor's book of pub games informs us that a Mr. Aubrey Charman reportedly saw the European version of the game in Alfriston, Sussex in the 1920's.
• A 1934 Sunday Mirror article about the 'old English game' of Toad in the Hole has a picture of a La Grenouille table and says that there is another such table in Stranger's Hall, Norwich.

One can only conclude that unless a mention of Toad in the Hole in the early part of the 20th century is accompanied with a description, we can't be sure if it's the French or the English version of the game and it's probably more likely to be French. On that basis, the earliest certain reference and description for "English" 'Toad in the Hole' yet found by the author is from a 1931 edition of the West Sussex Gazette. It records the game as square box with a lead surface and says that the score is calculated according to how often the discs fall into the hole or how near the "shots" go. Since both games were in action in Sussex around this time, and they are so similar, it's perhaps not surprising that the label of Toad in the Hole became applied to the one without an actual toad, as well as the European imported game.

Pubs & Where To Play

Please see the separate Toad in the Hole & Pitch Penny Pubs and Leagues page.

Toad in the Hole Singles World Championship

 

Rules

Masters Traditional Games publishes free rules for traditional games and also sells a fully-fledged pub-style Toad in the Hole game.